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Aging, working memory, and discrimination learning.

Sharon A Mutter1, Steven J Haggbloom, Leslie F Plumlee

  • 1Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY 42101, USA. sharon.mutter@wku.edu

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (2006)
|July 29, 2006
PubMed
Summary

Older adults struggle to learn when a cue’s nonoccurrence predicts an outcome. This age-related deficit in feature-negative learning is linked to working memory decline, impacting inductive reasoning.

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Human Aging Research

Background:

  • Older adults demonstrate difficulty learning when the nonoccurrence of a cue predicts an outcome (feature-negative learning).
  • This age-related learning deficit may be associated with declines in working memory (WM) capacity.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if the age-related deficit in feature-negative learning occurs in a simpler context.
  • To determine the relationship between working memory decline and this learning difficulty in older adults.

Main Methods:

  • Simultaneous discrimination tasks were administered to younger and older adults.
  • Participants learned deterministic relationships where either cue occurrence (feature-positive) or nonoccurrence (feature-negative) predicted reinforcement.

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  • A subset of younger adults performed tasks under a concurrent working memory load.

    • Main Results:

    • Both advanced age and working memory load negatively impacted initial discrimination learning for both feature-positive and feature-negative tasks.
    • These detrimental effects persisted specifically for feature-negative discrimination even after extended learning.
    • Working memory capacity was crucial for inductive reasoning required in predictive learning.

    Conclusions:

    • Working memory decline disproportionately affects the learning of negative cue-outcome relationships.
    • Feature-negative learning requires more complex inductive reasoning, placing higher demands on working memory.
    • These findings highlight the cognitive mechanisms underlying age-related learning differences.